Sustainable finance in Australia: Compliance, enforcement and surrogate regulation

A previous article argued that climate finance regulation (reshaping the financial system to accelerate low-carbon investment) could contribute to a low-carbon transition by incentivising key financial actors to factor climate change risks into capital allocation decisions, investments and business operations. However, regulation in the absence of effective compliance and enforcement will achieve little, as the findings of the financial services royal commission amply demonstrate. This article examines three key compliance and enforcement strategies: Responsive Regulation, Smart Regulation and Meta-regulation, identifying ways in which each illuminates the path to best practice. However, in an age where regulatory budgets are under stress and in which neo-liberal rhetoric still prevails it also recognises the limits of government regulation and the importance of harnessing third parties as regulatory surrogates. Strategies for doing so are also proposed.